During her 70-year reign and 96-year life, Queen Elizabeth II maintained a close circle of friends, confidants and royal staff. Some of her closest friends included Lady Susan Hussey, Mary Morrison, Lady Elizabeth Leeming, Susan Rhodes, Lady Anne Tennant nee Coke, Dame Annabel Whitehead and Angela Kelly.
However, that list also includes her life-long friend Lord Porchester, affectionately known as 'Porchie' or 'Porchy', who was actually called Henry George Reginald Molyneux Herbert.
Who is Porchie, the Queen's close friend?
Porchie was a close friend of the Queen's since childhood. He ran in aristocratic circles and his family was close to the royals. He was born at Highclere Castle, best known as the setting for Downton Abbey, to the sixth Earl of Carnarvon in 1924.
While Porchie did not live to see his family home featured on television, the Queen is rumoured to have loved Downton Abbey. She used to visit the house frequently during her childhood.
Does Lord Porchester, Porchie, feature in The Crown?
Yes, Porchie or Porchy has featured or been mentioned in The Crown several times – from as early as season one. In season one, episode nine, Prince Philip loses his temper and grows jealous of the Queen's close friendship with Lord Porchester (who was played by Joseph Kloska).
She responds by saying, 'I have nothing to hide from you. Porchie is a friend. And yes, there are those who would have preferred me to marry him. Indeed, marriage with him might have been easier, might have even worked better than ours. But to everyone’s regret and frustration, the only person I have ever loved is you.'
However, the storyline reemerges in season three when the Queen and her close friend travel to France and the US together. They spend several weeks abroad discussing how best to breed and train horses and working out how the Queen's horses can be more competitive.
And in season six, episode eight – which depicts the demise of Princess Margaret's health – Porchie is mentioned again. First, in a flashback to an alleged wild night out at the Ritz (supposedly one of the rare occasions the Queen let her hair down, before she was crowned, and danced without people knowing who she was) with the Queen and Princess Margaret.
And later on in the episode, when Margaret is on her death bed, she expresses concern about how the Queen will cope when she dies given that her close friend Porchie (who died in September 2001 at the age of 77) had recently died too.
Did the Queen and Porchie have an affair?
While The Crown arguably implies that there was more to their special friendship than meets the eye, there is no evidence to suggest that Porchie and the Queen ever had an affair. Instead, they remained close friends throughout their lives, shared a love of horses, and attended a number of events together over the years.
Lord Porchester married Jean Margaret Wallop in 1956, and they went on to have three children together, including George Reginald Oliver Molyneux Herbert, the current Earl of Carnarvon. The Queen is his godmother.